Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 10.28.15

LIKE I WAS SAYIN’
TWO FOR THOUGHT SAME TOPIC, DIFFERENT VIEWS IS PAUL RYAN UP FOR THE JOB?
KELLYN BROWN
THAT’S SCARY
THE OTHER NIGHT WHILE WATCHING THE original Halloween I panned the horrible acting; the town sheriff is especially unbelievable. Yet, for reasons other than the actors’ performances, the 1978 film still scares me.
It’s the music. Director John Carpenter actually com- posed and performed the synthesized, repeating score, and every time it’s cued over the course of the movie, the viewer knows that Michael Myers is lurking. It increases the tension in otherwise simple scenes and lingers with the listener. It stirs anticipation until Carpenter reveals what you’re anticipating. And that’s scary, and a big rea- son why the film is considered a classic.
In the spirit of Halloween, here are some other scary movies that lingered with our newsroom staffers long after the credits rolled.
Quarantine Set in LA, a night shift reporter follows a routine police call to an apartment building, which they soon learn is home to some woman infected with some- thing strange. She viciously attacks people, then they start viciously attacking other people. The CDC quaran- tines the building after the reporters are already inside. Everyone dies. One by one. Afterward, I moved my bed to a different spot in my childhood room so I could see if someone with rabies was coming after me through the door or window. And I also stopped watching scary mov- ies. - Clare Menzel
Silence of the Lambs In hindsight, I was probably too young to have watched this psychological thriller when I did, but I’d begged my dad to see it after a friend piqued my adolescent curiosity with a vivid description of the film’s horrific plot. After initially spurning my request, my dad acquiesced, and watched the film with me. I almost couldn’t stomach the final climactic scene in which the young FBI trainee Clarice Starling closes in on the serial killer Buffalo Bill in a pitch-black basement room. It remains one of the most nauseating and upsetting expe- riences of my life. - Tristan Scott
Watcher in the Woods The scariest movie I’ve seen depends on how old I was when I saw it, but Disney’s “The Watcher in the Woods” from 1980 is still really scary to me now, and I’m 30. It’s creepy, there’s a missing girl, and someone is literally watching this family from the woods. You see it in that first-person point of view, so you KNOW it’s not just a trick of the imagination, seeing that move- ment out of the corner of your eye. I’m not sure what pos- sessed Disney to make this movie, but I can tell you: Lion King this is not. - Molly Priddy
Seven When I was 12 years old, I found out why my parents warned me about watching scary movies. It was the summer of 1996, some friends and I somehow got our hands on a VHS copy of “Seven.” Up until then, the scar- iest film I’d seen was “Young Frankenstein,” which of course wasn’t supposed to be scary. I was a bit weak in the knees back then and still largely am. So you can probably imagine the level of trauma that all 127 minutes of “Seven” caused a precocious young boy. What’s in the box? I wish I didn’t know. - Dillon Tabish
Storm of the Century Without question, the scariest movie I ever saw was Stephen King’s “Storm of the Cen- tury,” a six-hour miniseries that aired on ABC when I was a kid. The film focuses on the fictional town of Little Tall Island, Maine that is pummeled by a Nor’easter that cuts the community off from the mainland. In the middle of it all, a stranger named Andre Linoge shows up and starts spilling everyone’s darkest secrets. He murders people at random. He tells the townspeople that he will stop haunt- ing them “if they give him what he wants.” I won’t tell you what he wants, but it’s creepy. Set in my home state, per- haps the film hit a little too close to home. - Justin Franz
BY TIM BALDWIN
In politics, criticism comes from all directions. Some will quickly castigate a politician as impure if there are even slight disagreements between them. Federal poli- tics present even more perplexing battles of “right and wrong” given the more complex geo-political inter- ests. In the U.S. House, the speaker is often the center of attack, especially with current political conditions. Apparently, Paul Ryan thinks he’s up for the job
Ryan has historically been the ally of establishment Republican leadership. Yet, he has an independent streak attractive to anti-establishment Republicans. For example, the head of the House Freedom Caucus supports Ryan, and 70 percent – a notable majority – of the caucus voted to endorse Ryan. Still, Ted Cruz has not openly supported Ryan for speaker and Rand Paul has openly criticized him on a variety of issues. So, maybe Ryan is nobody’s yes man: this is good, especially the Republican Party, which needs a major facelift.
Forbes noted, Republicans “need to marshal voters around big ideas that will unite the party, training their sights on meaningful tax reform, pro-growth strate- gies, and replacing Obamacare.” True. The Trump phe- nomenom should be instructive here: Americans who want individual liberty and prosperity do not want a robot to resound clannish views; they want a smart, independent thinker and unbeholden leader who has a solid understanding of limited government and uses sound tactics to accomplish those goals. Is Ryan that man?
BY JOE CARBONARI
It will be interesting to see how Paul Ryan, if he
is elected our new speaker of the house, goes about the job. Intransigence can wear on the best of us. He will have to deal with the Freedom Caucus, about 40 newish members with Tea Party ways. Tough cats to herd.
The Freedom Caucus drove John Boehner out and then torpedoed Kevin McCarthy’s anointment as Boehner’s replacement. Some touchy issues impend. The first is the debt ceiling ... yes, again.
Ryan’s economic wizardry and boyish charm may well get it raised without a shutdown. He’s good with numbers and willing to explain. He gives intel- lectual cover, and credibility, to concepts strongly held but hard to defend. The Freedom Caucus may well defer on the debt ceiling. Hopefully, Transpor- tation Department funding can slide through, too.
December will bring the spending bills involving the funding, or not, of Obamacare and Planned Par- enthood. Re-consideration of the Export-Import Bank may already have taken place. There will be blood.
Is Paul Ryan the right person for the rough and tumble, and the nastiness, that he will be sub- jected to? He appears to be reasonable, logical, and well-intended. He does not, however, appear to have the gusto of a back-slapper or the cunning of a street fighter. The members of the Freedom Caucus are flush with success. They will not hold back for long. Paul Ryan will be tested. It will not be fun.
AMERICAN RURAL DIANE SMITH TIME FOR A NEW SONG
“You ain’t the only one who feels like this world left you far behind. I don’t know why you gotta be angry all the time.” Tim McGraw song, released 2001.
I recently heard this song from years back and it struck me how much has changed since it was released. In the early 2000s, when country music mega-star Tim McGraw was singing this song, it didn’t seem relevant to much of anything other than a couple in that heart-wrenching, hostile time before a break-up. When I heard it a few weeks ago though, it seemed rel- evant to broader issues for us as a country.
These days we Americans seem awfully angry a lot of the time. Even in the friendliest of locations, like my small town backyard, folks appear more stressed and on edge than usual. Maybe it’s because we’re in the middle of political season or, sadly, for reasons deeper and more pervasive.
According to an article in The Economist, “Mr. Trump’s most loyal supporters – white men without college degrees – have much to be cross about. They have lost economic and social power, thanks partly to global competition and automation but also to femi- nism and civil rights.”
Republicans are also angry with other Republi- cans. The LA Times explained intra-Republican party animosity this way, “The controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline ... may soon be dead, tough antiabortion
legislation has languished in the Senate, and a fiercely disputed nuclear deal with Iran seems virtually cer- tain to take effect, despite near-unanimous opposition from Republicans in Congress ... People feel betrayed.”
Republicans aren’t the only ones that are angry either. According to an article in RealClearPolitics, millennials (many of whom are seriously liberal) are irked because “We (millennials) know that our gov- ernment would be better off spending more of our tax dollars on jobs and education, and not just on Social Security and defense. We overwhelmingly recognize that the war on drugs has been an embarrassing waste of money and lives, and that anyone should be able to marry whomever they love.”
“You ain’t the only one who feels like this world left you far behind ...”
Evidently, feeling left behind is a pretty universal experience these days. And it’s an experience that’s making an awful lot of folks really angry.
Before we adults in the room let this get any uglier, it might be a good idea for us all to recognize that lots of people are feeling the same things ... oftentimes for very different reasons. Maybe now would be a good time for us to soften up a little bit because angry gets counterproductive fast. Let’s rein it in. It’s time for a new song.
Learn more about Diane by following her column here or visit American Rural at AmericanRural.org.
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OCTOBER 28, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM